My experience backs this up as well. Schools don’t have the budget to do it right or to care, so they make do.

yet they always seem to have enough to casually drop several grand AstroTurfing their football field

Yes, because kids care about football, but nobody cares about a schools IT department. For schools (and many businesses) IT is just a utility.

I didn't care about football, I cared about computers. My entire school district didn't have a hint of CS more advanced than learning how to use Microsoft Office. Additionally, there are ways to play football outside of a school team, I played soccer for many years outside of school and enjoyed myself well enough.

Here in Baltimore many public schools don't have A/C. (Heck, many don't even have reliable heat, but that wouldn't bother a server as much). Hey, at least it (probably... dear lord I hope) forestalls that solution.